A fire on Tuesday razed approximately 14 acres of a canefield in the vicinity of Inswood, St Catherine, forcing the closure of one school and left several residents complaining of respiratory problems.

The thick smoke from the fire also caused a traffic snarl as motorists travelling in the vicinity were forced to reduce their speed considerably because of poor visibility.

Firefighters from the Spanish Town station told the Jamaica Observer that they were alerted to the blaze at approximately 10:00 am by residents. However, efforts to quickly bring the blaze under control were hampered by strong winds in the area.The fire was eventually extinguished after more than five hours of dousing.

On Tuesday, residents said the fire caused some amount of anxiety in the area.

“At one point I feared that where I live would have been destroyed,” said Shantoy Williams as she and other residents called on the authorities to launch a probe to find out how the fire started..

“We want the authorities to look into this matter because this is one of the largest fire of this kind we have seen,” said one resident.

In another matter, residents said they were planning to stage a protest over a decision by authorities to remove them from the lands where they were now occupying. They are angry that, after years of living on the land, they were not given the option to purchase the property or given more time to relocate.

“Is more than 20 years I have been living in this area and now powers that be come and a tell us that we have two months to move from off the land,” said Cadesha Wright.

The woman said she and other residents were informed that the area will be used for housing development.

— Kimmo Matthews